War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History: 1500 to Today [Hardcover]

Max Boot (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 19, 2006

A monumental, groundbreaking work of history that shows how technological and strategic revolutions have transformed the battlefield—from the Spanish Armada to the War on Terror— and how mastery of these innovations has shaped the rise and fall of nations and empires

In War Made New, acclaimed author Max Boot explores how innovations in warfare mark crucial turning points in modern history, influencing events well beyond the realm of combat. Combining gripping narrative history with wide-ranging analysis, Boot focuses on four "revolutions" in military affairs and describes key battles from each period to explain how inventions ranging from gunpowder to GPS-guided air-strikes have remade the field of battle— and shaped the rise and fall of empires.

Bringing to life battles from the defeat of the Spanish Armada to Wellington’s victory at Assaye, War Made New analyzes the Gunpowder Revolution and explains warfare’s evolution from ritualistic, drawn-out engagements to much deadlier events, precipitating the rise of the modern nation state. He next explores the triumph of steel and steam during the Industrial Revolution, including the British triumph at Omdurman and the climax of the Russo-Japanese war at Tsushima, showing how it powered the spread of European colonial empires. Moving into the twentieth century and the Second Industrial Revolution, Boot examines three critical clashes of World War II—the German army’s blitzkrieg, Pearl Harbor, and the firebombing of Tokyo—to illustrate how new technology such as the tank, radio, and airplane ushered in terrifying new forms of warfare that aided the rise of highly centralized, and even totalitarian, world powers. Finally, in his section on the Information Revolution, Boot focuses on the Gulf War, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the Iraq war, arguing that even as cutting-edge technologies such as stealth aircraft have made America the greatest military power in world history, advanced communications systems have allowed decentralized, "irregular" forces to become an increasingly significant threat to Western power.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From bronze cannons to smart bombs, this engaging study examines the impact of new weaponry on war by spotlighting exemplary battles, including famous epics like the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the attack on Pearl Harbor along with obscure clashes like the 1898 Battle of Omdurman, in which a British colonial force mowed down Sudanese tribesmen with machine guns. Boot (The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power) gives due weight to social context: advanced weapons don't spell victory unless accompanied by good training and leadership; innovative doctrine; an efficient, well-funded bureaucracy; and a "battle culture of forbearance" that eschews warrior ferocity in favor of a soldierly ethos of disciplined stoicism under fire. These factors flourish, he contends, under a rationalist, progressive Western mindset. The author, a journalist and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, enlivens his war stories with profiles of generals from Gustavus Adolphus to Norman Schwarzkopf and splashes of blood and guts. Boot distills 500 years of military history into a well-paced, insightful narrative. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Readable and informative, this book provides a valuable overview of how military innovations can abruptly affect the course of history. Highly recommended. -- Library Journal

War Made New is impressive in scope. What is equally impressive is its unique interpretation of the causal relationship between technology, warfare and the contemporary social milieu. This is a superb thinking-person's book, which scrutinizes conventional historical wisdom through a new lens. -- Lt. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor, USMC (ret.), coauthor of Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq

From Drake's ships harrying the Armada up the Channel to U.S. Special Forces deploying in the mountains of Afghanistan, Boot's narrative takes the widest possible view, yet it always crackles with fascinating detail and swift, adept character sketches. Drawing examples from scores of battlefields, War Made New show how nations have seized technological opportunities, or failed to do so at the steepest imaginable cost. Boot makes events from the dawn of the gunpowder era as immediate to contemporary America as is the treat of terrorist attack, all the while telling a story as enthralling as it is significant. -- Richard Snow, Editor, American Heritage

Magisterial. -- The Weekly Standard

Max Boot traces the impact of military revolutions on the course of politics and history over the past 500 years. In doing so, he shows that changes in military technology are limited not to war fighting alone, but play a decisive role in shaping our world. Sweeping and erudite, while entirely accessible to the lay reader, this work is key for anyone interested in where military revolutions have taken us-and where they might lead in the future. -- U.S. Senator John McCain

Max Boot's book takes hundred of years of tactical battle history and reduces it to an incisive narrative of how war has changed. By providing such a coherent view of the past, he has pointed us toward the future. What is doubly impressive is how he draws surprising, fresh lessons from wars we thought we knew so much about but in fact didn't. -- Robert D. Kaplan, author of Imperial Grunts

Mr. Boot is ably filling the role occupied for many years by John Keegan, the famed British author of classics like "The Face of War" and "The Mask of Command." Both use a similar approach: Illustrate broad military trends with specific examples, and embed the analysis in an entertaining historical narrative accompanied by commentary. Fans of Mr. Keegan's will enjoy Mr. Boot. -- Bruce Berkowitz, New York Sun

Never does he bog down in detail--and never does he lose sight of the fact that without good people, good weapons are useless. Boot has bitten off a big chunk of history. But thanks to his knowledge of the facts and his skill in setting them down, he has served up a first-class book. -- St. Louis Post Dispatch

The subject of military transformation is one that is difficult to make interesting -- some think it impossible -- but the book is not just interesting, it is compelling. -- Powerlineblog.com

While much has been in written in recent years about the so-called 'Revolution in Military Affairs,' Max Boot is the first scholar to place it within the broad sweep of history, and in the context of the rise of the West in world affairs since 1500. In so doing, he not only tells a remarkable tale, but he compels us all, even those obsessed solely with contemporary military affairs, to ask the right questions and to distinguish what is truly new and revolutionary from what is merely ephemeral. He has rendered a valuable service, and given us a fascinating read at the same time, so we are doubly in his debt. -- Paul Kennedy, Professor of History at Yale University and author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 640 pages
• Publisher: Gotham; First Edition edition (October 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592402224
• ISBN-13: 978-1592402229
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #687,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Max Boot is one of America's leading military historians and foreign-policy analysts. The Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, he is the author of two-widely acclaimed books: "The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power" and "War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today." His latest book--"Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present"--will be coming out in January 2013. He is also a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. He has advised military commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his books have been assigned reading by the military services. He has been called "a master historian" by the New York Times and a "a penetrating writer and thinker" by The Wall Street Journal. For more information, see www.maxboot.net.
 

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars RMA for the masses April 24, 2007

By T. Graczewski VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

A decade ago, the defense policy community was a buzz about an emerging "Revolution in Military Affairs" (RMA) - a discontinuous change in the nature of warfare generated by the information revolution whose potential was so clearly demonstrated by the overwhelming advantage that precision guided munitions and operational awareness conferred to US forces in the Gulf War of 1991.

Today, the increasingly low-tech, irregular nature of the current Global War on Terror and, more recently, the frustrating experience of counterinsurgency in Iraq, have seemingly diminished the importance of the RMA and discredited its most vocal proponents. This is unfair and unfortunate as the notion of periodic, major transformational change in military technology and operational capabilities is certainly sound. Moreover, it is a concept that anyone serious about military history or international affairs ought to be familiar with and consider seriously. There is no better introduction to the topic than "War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today" by Max Boot.

There are several reasons to recommend "War Made New." To begin with, author Max Boot is a superb talent and, in many ways, was the ideal person to write the first general overview of the RMA concept and a sampling of the many historical case studies that support the theory. As a long-time lead defense reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Boot possesses a sophisticated understanding of current defense policy and national security strategy. Better yet, he writes with the same engaging and lucid style of other defense journalists that have written best-selling full-length books, such as David Halberstam, Tom Ricks, and Neil Sheehan.... Prior to "War Made New," the RMA had been a subject only written about by academics and policy wonks. This book should take the RMA and the classic RMA case studies to a mainstream audience.

The book is broken up into five parts. The first three parts review distinct RMAs from the past half-millennium. In "The Gunpowder Revolution" Boot covers the dramatic increase in the destructive capacity of gunpowder weapons that emerged in the late 15th century, the tactical changes developed by the Dutch and perfected by Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years' War to maximize the rate of fire and overall impact of hand-held and mobile artillery firepower, and the parallel creation and stunning growth of standing professional armies throughout Europe during the period that led to the first stage of western imperialism in the 18th century. The author uses the examples of the British defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588), two major battles of the Thirty Years War (1631-32), and a less familiar episode in British India (1803) to illustrate how and why technological, doctrinal, and organizational change had profound impact not just on the course of a battle, but the outcome of war, the development of societies, and the fate of history.

The second part addresses "The First Industrial Revolution" where Boot covers engagements as diverse in time and place as the battles of Koniggratz in the Franco-Prussian War (1866), Omdurman in modern-day Sudan between the British and the native Mahdi Army (1898), and the shocking Japanese naval victory over the imperial Russian fleet at Tsushima (1905). The period between 1850 and 1914 is generally seen as the "railroad, rifle, and telegraph" RMA and Boot generally adheres to that thesis, although he stresses that the advantages conferred by early industrial technology were by no means the sole property of Western European states, a message that applies to any technological revolution that spawns an RMA.

The final historical part covers "The Second Industrial Revolution" and addresses the dramatic and non-linear changes that occurred during the interwar period in land warfare with the advent of armored warfare, at sea with the ascendancy of aircraft carriers as the new capital ship of fleet engagements, and in the air with advent of strategic bombing. The case studies that Boot writes here on the German invasion of France (1940), the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor (1941), and the US air campaign against Tokyo (1945) have long been the staple of modern RMA theory.

These first three parts account for nearly three-quarters of the book. Each case study is crisply written and makes a compelling point. That said, Boot offers no radical reinterpretations of what an RMA is or in anyway fundamentally challenges the conventional wisdom that developed amongst RMA proponents during the 1990s. Many of the case studies he provides have been written about extensively before and make essentially the same arguments. Boot's main value added is the fluidity of his prose and how he ties five centuries of history into one coherent and convincing argument.

The final two parts of the book covers the present and future. The fourth part addresses "The Information Revolution" and, unlike the first three Revolutions, is entirely focused on one nation - the US victory in the First Gulf War (1991), the US invasion of Afghanistan (2002), and the US invasion of Iraq (2003). Here, Boot focuses on the conventional aspects of each engagement where US firepower and advanced technology played a decisive role in defeating enemy forces. He concedes that much of the advantages of information age weaponry has little relevance to the messy, day-to-day conduct of counter-insurgency, but spends little time pondering if and how the information RMA has any relevance to current low intensity operations around the world.

The final part offers an overview of "Revolutions to Come" and highlights the military potential of cyberwarfare, nanotechnology, robotics, and the military use of space. This section reads like grist for a science fiction book and should prompt analysts to reflect on how future technology may impact the conduct of military operations decades from now.

Despite the broad historical and technological sweep of Boot's case studies, he consistently stresses five points. First, despite the focus on technology in the subtitle and the role new technology plays in every chapter, Boot stresses that technology alone does not and cannot make an RMA. True discontinuous change is driven by the combination of new technology with new tactics and organization, thoughtful leadership, and perhaps most importantly, an efficient and effective centralized bureaucracy able to nurture and promote innovation. Second, Boot cautions that nations ignore RMAs at their peril. Every major city-state or nation-state that failed to embrace and support new military technology, doctrine, and methods have seen their relative position in the international balance of powers significantly diminished. Third, mastery of an RMA may convey distinct battlefield advantages, but ultimate victory or defeat hinges on wise political decisions and diplomacy. Fourth, the military advantages to a nation in excelling in an RMA are enormous, but history has demonstrated that it is very difficult to maintain a lead for long. Competent and resourceful competitors will learn and adapt, and are quite likely to take fuller advantage of more recent developments in technology and operations. Finally, Boot notes that the pace of innovation is speeding up. In the past, an RMA could take several centuries to completely unfold. Today, it is likely to happen in several decades.

In sum, military transformation and the RMA is a concept informed readers of history and current events ought to be well acquainted with. There are certainly many divergent, but credible and thoughtful opinions on the matter. "War Made New" is no doubt sympathetic to the RMA argument and clearly sees former secretary of defense Rumfeld's military transformation push as the correct and necessary path for present-day policymakers to pursue. Whether today's intelligence analysts and operators accept all, part, or none of the RMA concept is not nearly as important as more fully understanding the theory, the many historical examples that purport to support it, and how and why it may impact contemporary or future military operations. There is no better place to start than Max Boot's "War Made New." Read more ›

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Why the western civilization dominated March 29, 2007

By James Chase

Format:Hardcover

If you have read Jared Diamond's book, "Guns, Germs, and Steel", Max Boot's book "War Made New" is a must read to help further explain why western civilization came to dominate the world in the late 19th century. The book is well written and explains why major battles had the outcome they did.

Not only are the battles explained but the social organization of the countries participating in the battle are also discussed, which helps explain that not only were the weapons used, a major cause for the resulting battle, but the social norm of the country played a major role in determining the battles outcome.

Example, how could Japan go from a feudal country in the mid 19th century to a major naval power in the early 20th century, defeating Russia in a major naval engagement off the coast of Korea and Japan? Mainly by the Japanese society making a 90 degree turn in their thinking and actively pursuing industrialization.

I highly recommend this book, not only for its history but also to help explain the world politics today.

Jim

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Five centuries of technology impacting on the art of war November 27, 2006

By Jerry Saperstein HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Max Boot has written a fascinating account of the impact of technology on war over the past five centuries. In turn, although peripherally for the most part, Boot also examines the impact of war on various societies during the same period. Boot breaks the period down into four technological revolutions: gunpowder, the first and second industrial revolutions and finally the advent of the information age.

To establish perspective, Boot begins with the campaign of France's Charles VIII to take Italy. The innovation was the creative use of artillery to batter down fortress walls. Boot' point is that though cannon had been around for a while, it was the innovative use of them that changed the face of warfare and, at the same time, the nature of Italian social structure by dooming the city-state.

Boot is careful to point out that military technology is not the only factor to consider, but rather that the deployment of technology was not a certainty and that generally the first force to effectively implement technology revolutions generally gained dominance for some time.

To illustrate his point, Boot uses twelve battles, most of them essentially forgotten by all except the student of history. Boot is a masterful writer. To illustrate the rise of the gunpowder age, he writes of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the battle of Breitenfeld and Lutzen and, most illuminatingly, the battle of Assaye in 1803. In the latter example, Boot shows how the adoption of gunpowder by the Europeans led in turn to its ability to colonize and dominate the planet....

The impact of the First Industrial Revolution is illustrated in the 1866 battle at Koniggratz (which demonstrates the impact of railway logistics in allowing a formerly inferior power to become dominant); the battle at Omdurman in 1898, explaining again how the small forces of European powers could prevail when vastly outnumbered and the naval battle of Tsushima where Japan made it clear that the industrial revolution was not confined only to Europeans.

The territory becomes more familiar with Boot's examination of the impact of the Second Industrial Revolution on military affairs. Here, the German attack on France in 1940, the Japanese attack against Pearl Harbor and the American aerial offensive against Japan in March, 1945 are examined.

Only sixty years removed from the dramatic innovations of WWII, it is breathtaking to see how military affairs were influenced by the second industrial revolution with its inventions of airplanes, electronics and other technologies. One of Boot's best examples is how Germany, while weaker in terms of material in 1940, was able to better implement available technology. Boot uses the example of the aerial attacks on Japan to make another point: that technological advantage can pass swiftly from one society to another.

Boot makes clear how dramatically the "Information Revolution" has changed the face of warfare. His last three examples are the Gulf War of 1991; Afghanistan in 2001 and the current conflict in Iraq. The changes that information technology have wrought are breathtaking when put into perspective by Boot.

Of greatest interest to the contemporary reader, perhaps, is Boot's discussion of the consequences of the information revolution on warmaking and the possibilities of tomorrow's technology. These last discussions are, frankly, frightening for Boot makes it absolutely clear that no nation has been able to retain dominance through its use of technology. Boot does not declare that it is impossible, but rather sets forth a cautionary survey of how technology has given the advantage to one or another nation for a period of time before another nation made better use of it. In particular, Boot cautions, the information revolution makes it possible for non-nation actors to make technological war without traditional structure and therein is a great source of danger to the existing social order.

"War Made New" is a very worthwhile addition to the military enthusiast's bookshelf as well as that of the historian and observer of the social order.

Jerry Read more ›

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening and Well Written November 9, 2006

By John Steele Gordon

Format:Hardcover

War Made New is one of the best books I've read this year.

The book covers the technological revolutions that have swept through military history in the last 500 years, beginning with the gunpowder revolution at the end of the Middle Ages that concentrated military power in the hands of kings, as the nobility largely could afford neither cannon nor the rebuilding that was necessary to keep medieval castles from being sitting ducks for those cannon.

The first industrial revolution, beginning in the 19th century, brought far larger armies, thanks to much more rapid economic growth; more rapid movement and better command and control, thanks to railroads and the telegraph; more potent arms such as the Maxim and Gatling guns, and far more powerful battleships.

The second industrial revolution brought, tanks, aircraft carriers, and heavy bombers.

The information revolution of our own time brought smart bombs, stealth aircraft, and vastly improved communications.

Each of these revolutions altered the balance of power in favor of those countries that were the first to exploit them effectively, such as the English defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 or the blitzkrieg tactics that overwhelmed France in 1940.

American mastery of information technology allowed the 1991 Gulf War to be a cakewalk and yet, fifteen years later, what is, militarily, the only significant country in the world is struggling mightily against enemies in Iraq that are not even nation-states, for the new information technology and electronics can be exploited effectively and cheaply by them. And the United States military, especially the elephantine Pentagon bureaucracy, has been reluctant to develop the needed skills and expertise in counter-insurgency warfare.... The military wants to fight tank battles when there are no more tanks left to fight.

One of the lessons that Boot draws in this book is that, over and over again, the losers in the last war and inferior powers are far quicker to exploit the possibilities of new technology than are the victors and dominant powers. The English mastery of the new cannon-dominated naval warfare helped doom the Armada. The Germans after 1918 developed the new offensive capabilities provided by closely integrated armor and air power, while France assumed that defense, as it had been in World War I, was still king. And the United States, after Vietnam, profoundly changed its military culture for the better.

Boot uses several battles as examples. Some of these, such as the Spanish Armada, are known to every school child. Others, such as the Battle of Königgratz (1866), which established Prussian dominance of the German-speaking world at the expense of Austria, have been largely forgotten.

War Made New is one of those books that had me saying, "Ah hah, now I understand" over and over again. Read more ›